Meet the Oldest Member of the Human Family

Meet the Oldest Member of the Human Family In July 2002, an international team led by French paleontologist Michel Brunet announced the discovery of a humanlike skull that may be up to seven million years old, twice as old as any others found. The previously unknown ape species, named Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was found in Chad, in central Africa. The remarkably complete skull was nicknamed "Toumai," which means, "hope of life" in the Goran language. The skull's …

…ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. According to the view of Bernard Wood of George Washington University, the chief significance of the Sahelanthropus find is not the issue of whether it's a human ancestor, but the clues it offers into the unsuspected diversity of ancient fossil hominids. That might be the most amazing thing about Toumai: that humans can peer into their own beginnings, and see themselves emerging from the long dark night of the forest.